Saturday, May 26, 2012

June 11 marks two years since Ziad Jilani was killed by
Israeli border-policeman Maxim Vinogradov in Wadi Joz, Occupied East Jerusalem.
Driving home from Friday prayers as Al Aqsa mosque, Ziad’d windshield was
struck by a rock and he swerved, causing a small accident. Border police shot
at him, chased and killed him after he had already been shot in the back and was
wounded, lying on the ground. He was unarmed. The case against Maxim Vinogradov
and his commander Shadi Heir Al Din was closed for lack of evidence despite an
abundance of irrefutable evidence that Ziad was executed while he was wounded
unarmed and posing no threat to anyone.

Ziad’s death shows how Palestinians can be randomly killed,
labeled as a terrorist and no one is prosecuted for the crime. Since the
beginning of the second Intifada (2000) at least 6,444 Palestinians have been
killed by the Israeli security forces. During this time no Jewish Israeli
soldier has been charged with murder for killing a Palestinian.

Hi, I’m Katherine Franke from Columbia Law School, and I’m sorry I
can’t join you today in person at the Equality Forum’s panel on legal issues, I
want to thank you for indulging my presence by video.

As you no doubt know, the Equality Forum has chosen Israel as it’s featured
nation this year, and for that reason I thought this was a good opportunity to
talk a little bit about the state of gay rights in Israel/Palestine. Last
January, I was part of the first lgbtq delegation to the West Bank – 16 of us,
academics, artists, journalists, community leaders, and even a lesbian rabbi –
visited Palestine and Israel in order to get a first hand sense of lesbian,
gay, trans and queer politics in the region. While we were there Tel Aviv was
voted in poll to be the “world’s best gay city.” Lesbians and gay men have been
openly serving in the Israeli military for years, same-sex couples’ marriages
have been recognized by the state for some time, and Israel has much better
sexual orientation discrimination laws than we do. The Israeli Ambassador to
the U.S. Michael Oren often notes that, in his words: Israel “provides shelter
to Palestinian homosexuals seeking safety from Islamists in the West Bank.”

Given all of this, I was really curious to hear what queer Palestinians had to
say about the struggles they face. I met with Israeli gay activists in Tel
Aviv, as well as the members of Al Qaws, the Palestinian lgbtq group based in
Ramallah, and Aswat, an organization of Palestinian lesbians who are citizens
of Israel and is located in Haifa. What they told us, and what I witnessed,
complicated the story of gay rights in the region considerably. Here are some highlights
of what I learned:

While Tel Aviv may have a hot and hunky gay bar scene – the tolerance or
acceptance of homosexuality is not as common elsewhere in the country. Israel,
like the U.S. is a complex place, and is increasingly religiously conservative
– in fact when I was in Jerusalem I saw that many of the public busses are now
sex segregated, men sitting in front, women in the back, and in one Jerusalem
neighborhood women are banned from walking on the main streets entirely so as
to avoid men having contact with them. A recent report documented that almost
half of the out gays and lesbians serving in the Israeli military have been
sexually harassed by other servicemembers, and a member of the Knesset and
Education Minister recently said that gays “are not people like everyone else,”
that we are an abomination. Ambassador Oren was mistaken when he said that
Israel gives asylum to gay and lesbian Palestinians. Israel does not grant
asylum to any

Palestinians, regardless of their sexual orientation, and in fact won’t even
let an Israeli who marries a Palestinian share their Israeli citizenship with
their spouse. Tel Aviv may have a great gay scene, but most Palestinians will
never see it since, regardless of their sexual orientation, because they are
not allowed to pass through the checkpoints and the Wall to enter Israel from
the West Bank.

What I learned from the queer Palestinians I met was that gay rights organizing
in Palestine has to be understood within the context of the Israeli occupation.

The Occupation is a totalizing experience – permeating all parts of life for
Palestinians. It is impossible for them to isolate their gay or lesbian selves
for special legal and political treatment, but rather the fight for sexual
rights is part of a larger struggle for Palestinian self-determination and
freedom. Let me give you a particularly salient example: Since 2000 Shin Bet,
the Israeli security service, has had a policy of blackmailing Palestinians who
are gay or who are perceived to be gay and threatening to out them unless they
become informants against their own people. For this reason, gay people in
Palestine have a reputation as collaborators with Israel – so some of the
homophobia gays and lesbians in Palestine experience is the direct product of
the occupation itself. Read
more….

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Two Palestinian prisoners being held in administrative
detention (without charges or trial), are nearing death after 63 days of a
hunger strike protesting Israel’s practice of arresting and holding prisoners
without charging them with a crime. Neither they nor their lawyers are
permitted to see the charges or evidence against them, so they cannot answer
the charges and defend themselves.

Bilal Diab was
arrested on 17 August 2011, when Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) came to his
home in the village of Kufr Ra’i, near Jenin, at 12:30 am. The family and a
large group of friends and neighbors were sitting in the front yard, spending
time together late into the night for Ramadan, when approximately 40 masked
men, wearing civilian clothes, surrounded the house and entered the yard by
climbing the walls of the neighbors’ houses. Bilal, along with four others,
were sitting on the roof. After about 10 minutes, Israeli military jeeps
arrived, accompanied by an intelligence officer.

The IOF began to throw sound bombs and shoot teargas into
the yard, and then forced everyone to stand against the wall. Some of Bilal’s
family members and friends were taken to a nearby store, where they were held
until the arrest process was over. The rest of the group was kept in the front
yard. Bilal’s brother, Issam, was thrown violently to the ground. His hands
were shackled behind his back and then two soldiers stepped on his head.

Bilal and four of his friends were questioned for about 15
minutes. His four friends were then released, but Bilal was shackled,
blindfolded and thrown to the ground. He was then dragged across the ground for
250 meters until reaching the military jeep. Bilal was taken to Megiddo prison,
and then transferred to Salem Detention Center for interrogation.

ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION AND HUNGER STRIKE

Bilal was issued an administrative detention order for 6
months on 25 August 2011. As with all other administrative detainees, Bilal’s
detention is based on secret information collected by Israeli authorities and
available to the military judge but not to Bilal or his lawyer. This practice
violates international humanitarian law, which permits some limited use of
administrative detention in emergency situations, but requires that the
authorities follow basic rules for detention, including a fair hearing at which
the detainee can challenge the reasons for his or her detention. These minimum
rules of due process have been clearly violated in Bilal’s case, leaving him
without any legitimate means to defend himself. Read more….

Thaer Halahleh
was arrested on 26 June 2010 when Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) raided his
home in Kharas village, near Hebron. Approximately 50 Israeli soldiers arrived
to Thaer’s house at 12:30 am. They knocked on the door, but before giving the
family enough time to open it, they broke down the door and went inside. The
soldiers then made all the women and children step outside the house and
searched the house with two dogs. After about 40 minutes, the IOF told Thaer’s
father that they had an order to arrest his son. When his father asked for the
reason, the officer only told him that Thaer was a “threat to the public”. This
vague phrase is frequently used by the Israeli security service when putting a
Palestinian in administrative detention. Thaer was subsequently transferred to
Etzion detention center.

PREVIOUS ARRESTS

Thaer has been consistently targeted for arrest and
administrative detention by Israeli authorities. He has been arrested eight
times and spent six and a half years in administrative detention total. He was
first held in administrative detention in 2000. After many other arrests, he
was arrested again in 2008 and spent one year in administrative detention, only
to be re-arrested the following year and placed back in administrative
detention.

THAER’S FAMILY

Thaer and his wife, Shireen, have a one-year-old daughter,
who was born while he was in prison. His wife was seven months pregnant when he
was arrested. His daughter, Lamar, has only seen her father in visits to
prison, and has been forced to get to know him through photographs.

Thaer’s mother, wife and daughter are the only family
members who have previously had permission to visit him. His father and five
brothers have never received permission. Since the beginning of his hunger
strike, he has received one visit from his mother, wife and daughter and was
then subsequently denied all family visits.

Thaer’s father and brothers have all also been arrested. His
brother Shaher was arrested in 2002 and is currently in Rimon prison, serving a
17-year sentence. Read
more….

Here is how you can help Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh:

Write to the Israeli government, military and legal
authorities and demand that Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh be released
immediately and that their administrative detentions not be renewed.

Stories from Israel and Palestine...

from peacemakers on the ground, who are working to end the injustice of Israel’s occupation and bring peace to their land. Stories to help Americans, who, like me, have not understood what is really happening—in the words of one Jewish grandmother I met, "for my children and grandchildren."

A Lenten Geography, Meditations for Lent, 2014

As we prepare for Holy Week and Easter, join me in listening to the texts for the Sundays in Lent through the stories of the "living stones"—the Christians, Jews and Muslims living in the ancient land of Palestine who are working to bring the good news of peace to that land today. The lessons are from the Revised Common Lectionary.

About Me

When I first traveled to Israel and Palestine in June, 2005, with Pastor Paul Rowold, I met Israelis and Palestinians and heard their stories about how difficult their lives have become under Israel's occupation and I witnessed all the ways they are bringing hope to their communities.
When I asked what I could to, they told me "Tell our stories." They were convinced that if the American people knew what was happening to them, their lives would be different.
I returned to visit with Israeli and Palestinian peace groups in June, 2008, and I have been the co-leader for two pilgrimage groups to the Holy Land in 2008 and 2009. In May-June 2010, I traveled with a Compassionate Listening delegation. Again, the Palestinians and the Jewish Israelis I met asked me to tell their stories of despair and hope—and about their work to build their communities and create a future of hope for their children. I have made two more trips—in 2011 and again this past fall,2013, with Interfaith Peace-builders. In the picture above, I'm protesting the occupation of Palestine by standing with the Women in Black at one of Jerusalem's busiest intersections in June, 2008.